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Your donation will go to a 501(c)3 and will be distributed to ensure restoration projects are completed.

I'm confused: is this fundraiser expected to fund NGO restoration work contracted by the USFS et al? Why wouldn't state/federal money pay for that work? Is there some sort of budgetary shortfall limiting the expediency or extent of the restoration? Why would outside donations be needed to fund work presumably already paid for by taxpayer dollars?

maybe the Forest Service doesn't have enough money to pay for all the needed work? They have limited budgets and there's a lot of damage. At least they can get a waiver that allows them to use chainsaws

if a trail was not restored and deemed dangerous I could see them closing it until they could get funding to restore it

retired jerry wrote:maybe the Forest Service doesn't have enough money to pay for all the needed work? They have limited budgets and there's a lot of damage. At least they can get a waiver that allows them to use chainsaws

if a trail was not restored and deemed dangerous I could see them closing it until they could get funding to restore it

They spent all their money paying for the folks "guarding" the access points.

retired jerry wrote:maybe the Forest Service doesn't have enough money to pay for all the needed work? They have limited budgets and there's a lot of damage. At least they can get a waiver that allows them to use chainsaws

if a trail was not restored and deemed dangerous I could see them closing it until they could get funding to restore it

Yeah but they closed the Benson Bridge for an extended period while "Funds were raised" We waited over a year for a new Tish Creek Bridge in part because of Funding. Yet in other threads here we have learned that USFS is banking a lot of the money raised from the NWFP and not spending it on trails.

Also Ditto on what Don said about the trail guards!

100% agree with you that a chainsaw waiver needs to be granted.

Last edited by Guy on February 5th, 2018, 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Bosterson wrote:I'm confused: is this fundraiser expected to fund NGO restoration work contracted by the USFS et al? Why wouldn't state/federal money pay for that work? Is there some sort of budgetary shortfall limiting the expediency or extent of the restoration? Why would outside donations be needed to fund work presumably already paid for by taxpayer dollars?

The page I linked to in the original post has an FAQ. The relevant part:

Why doesn't government pay for this work?
The Forest Service is certainly doing what it can; in fact, they’ve been able to do quite a bit of tree clearing already in the area to help ensure that trees badly damaged during the fire don’t fall and cause more damage or more dangerous situations. Our decision-makers and public agencies are faced with huge lists of projects that the public wants to see happen and there just isn’t the funding for all of them. As we’ve seen in the past few years, our tax dollars aren’t limitless! There are often gaps in public projects like these when public funds aren't able to cover the entire cost of a project, and crowdfunding can help to leverage larger sources of funds – from both the public and private sectors. Like many of you, we've read​ about the high costs of wildfire suppression over recent years and the toll that can take on funding for other activities, especially in 2017​. As Oregonians, we want to do our part to help in restoration of some of our state's most iconic places.

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